by SASCHA LOBO
Flowers on the square in front of the Cologne cathedral where dozens of women were the victims of sexual attacks on New Year’s Eve PHOTO/DPA
The events in Cologne were perpetrated by a sexist criminal mob — and have triggered the rise of racist digital mob in response. The incident has shown that much of the public doesn’t care much about sexual violence, unless it comes from foreigners.
The “events in Cologne” on New Year’s Eve: It is a formulation that takes no time at all to type or, for politicians and functionaries, to speak into a microphone. But doing so is the first mistake. The word “events” seems so passive, so unavoidable. But what happened in Cologne was more than fate, they were violent sexual assaults perpetrated against women by groups of men. And if the numbers and portrayals are true, then one can use a term that is among the ugliest in a societal context: mob.
A mob is a collection of people that establish a social dynamic within which pretty much all other rules are ignored. Violence is often the result. A mob is a mobile, transitory, extralegal space — established by those who temporarily peel away the thin veneer of civilization.
Social media, particularly Facebook and WhatsApp, have taken on a complex collection of roles in Germany. They constitute alternative public spheres, but are also platforms for documentation, discussion and organization. That sounds fantastic, and it sometimes is — but not always. Because in the wake of the attacks committed on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, it can also be seen how online mobs are established. And the degree to which they can escalate from the Internet into the real world can be gauged.
The manner in which the attacks in Cologne are being perceived, discussed and processed in social media would be worth a dozen catastrophe-sociology studies, but the “events in Cologne” should be examined at the outset.
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